The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

Loading ...

Loading ...

This story appears in the {{article.article.magazine.pretty_date}} issue of {{article.article.magazine.pubName}}. Subscribe

The failure of the House of Representatives to take the vote necessary to get badly needed relief to New York and New Jersey residents suffering the ravages of superstorm Sandy produced a reaction nearly as violent as the storm itself.

Governor of New Jersey at a town hall in Hillsborough, NJ 3/2/11 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As Northeastern Democrats and Republicans lined up to bash Speaker John Boehner’s insensitivity to the suffering of his fellow, storm battered Americans—not to mention a thorough tongue lashing from New Jersey’s Republican Governor Chris Christie, delivered as only Chris Christie can do— Republicans from other parts of the nation rose to the defense of the beleaguered Speaker, pointing out that Boehner was correct to not ask House Republicans to support a Senate bill so laden with pork as to cause even the most moderate House Republican to adopt a kosher diet.

However, as it turns out, the pork portions of the Senate bill were not earmarked to benefit Democratic members of the upper chamber of Congress. And you may be quite surprised to discover where that money is actually headed once the rich Senate legislation is passed by the House.

A review of the mark-up of the Senate bill reveals that all that extra, non-Sandy related cash is actually set to provide billions for “storm events that occurred in 2012 along the Gulf Coast and Atlantic Coast within the boundaries of the North Atlantic and Mississippi Valley divisions of the Corps that were affected by Hurricanes Sandy and Isaac."

Here’s the mark-up:

Why, you might ask, would the Senate be packing billions of taxpayer dollars for these areas of the country that are nowhere near the devastation brought about by superstorm Sandy into a bill designed to bring relief to those suffering from the storm that ripped the northeastern part of the nation?

The answer can be found in a quick review of the states that are set to benefit from the Senate’s extra-special benevolence—states including Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana.

What, you may ask, do these states far from New York and New Jersey have in common?

Each is not only a red state, but each of these states are represented by two Republican senators—with the exception of Louisiana with its one GOP senator.

And what happens when you buy off seven Republican senators with a package of goodies under the guise of storm relief supposedly meant to benefit two blue states?

You get yourself a filibuster proof piece of legislation.

Coincidence? Not at all. We know this because Harry Reid told us so in press conference held on December 20, a time when everyone’s attention was so glued to the fiscal cliff drama that any talk of any other bills was completely lost in the wind.

Here’s what Majority Leader Reid had to say:

"We have other important things to do here in the Senate. We have -- we're going on almost two months now without giving relief to the northeast who were struck by that violent storm, Sandy. 700,000 or 800,000 homes destroyed in New Jersey and New York alone. When Irene struck, we acted very quickly. We didn't wait and say, well let's see, Alabama has two Republican senators, Mississippi has two Republican senators, Texas has two Republican senators, Louisiana has one Republican senator,"

While it would appear that Reid figured out—all on his own—that adding in these pork benefits for his Republican colleagues would insure passage of the relief bill without requiring the need to devote endless hours heading off yet another GOP filibuster effort, it is clear that these GOP senators—each and every one of them a supposed mortal enemy of unnecessary government spending—did not rush to request that the money be removed from the bill so as to save the nation a few billion bucks.

Apparently, these deficit hawks only spread their wings when they are flying in full public view.But when nobody is looking?

Let the pork flow.

Can you spell h-y-p-o-c-r-i-t-e?

contact Rick at thepolicypage@gmail.com and follow me on Twitter and Facebook